Signal from tape to digital too hot

I want to go straight from my tape machine to my digital interfaces. The probelm is I hit tape really hard and when I go straight to the intrfaces they clip. I'm trying to avoid going through the preamps again. There is no gain reducer on my interfaces so I have to do it before it hits them. Any sugestions?

well i understand that and am with you on keeping your signal clean but whats probably is happening is just a few peaks are distorting on you --maybe go for more a limiter that just effects the peaks -then you can bring the signal up get a hotter sound (more ummph) and still not peak out.Then you wont be compressing everything

I get around this problem in one of two ways. Like recorderman, I prefer to reduce the Repro gain on the tape machine. If I'm in a hurry, the other method I use is to patch a something between the tape out and converter in. Usually I'll go for something like a DBX compressor or similar. I don't use it as a compressor though. Set the threshold as high as it will go, and the ratio to 1:1. I don't want compression, just gain control. Then I turn the output gain down about 2 db or so. Any piece of gear will work, so long as it is clean, and can be set up for just level control.

Play your source material and tweak the output of the tape machine done untill you no longer get overs. Then put up your "tones" reel and use 1khz to dial the outs to the same amount, so that they are equally reduced on all out puts the same; and you'll know how many db that is for future reference.

Obviously you have never calibrated the machine. Do you have a MRL calibration tape? If not, do not mess with the calibration ... you will only screw things up and you won't be able to get back to where you started. You will never get it right again without having the machine realigned.

In the case of the MS16, I would not trim the output cal levels down ... these are before the NR section and this is going to muck up the NR levels causing anomalies in the playback. RMs advice does not pertain to this scenario.

Run it through a mixer and trim the levels .. the added noise will be negligible as you will be lowering the levels, not increasing them.

Poor wording on my part ... I intended to say, you have never calibrated the machine yourself .. It's obvious because if you had, you would know where the trim pots were. Sorry for the confusion ..

I should ask ... is the tape you wish to transfer encoded with DBX? I was assuming it was but I now realize this is a 1" machine we are disscussing ... in many cases, operators turn the DBX off on these machines ... For rock and pop music they are very useable without the NR ..

If the tape is not encoded ... then you may trim the outputs down if you like. The trim pots are behind the meter panel I believe.. your owners manual should say. Be sure to record some reference tones on a piece of tape. Record 1K at 0 dB for about 90 seconds across all the tracks. Once you do that, you can use it as a refernce to return the playback to it's correct levels once you are finished with the transfer.

Another question ... is this machine running at -10 dB level or +4 dB level? If you are running -10 dB (on rca connectors) , is it possible to use +4 dB level on the inputs of the DAW you are transfering to? This may solve your problem ....